Comments for Gordaen's Blog http://blog.gordaen.com Ramblings about art, education, Linux and a lot more Sun, 11 May 2008 23:36:19 +0000 Comment on Driving Statistics with Gender Comparison by Sarah http://blog.gordaen.com/2006/08/28/driving-statistics-with-gender-comparison/#comment-97770 Sarah Fri, 09 May 2008 18:47:50 +0000 http://blog.gordaen.com/2006/08/28/driving-statistics-with-gender-comparison/#comment-97770 Yes, I find your research enlightening! I have been driving since I was 17 and I have seen A LOT of bad drivers. I got into my first accident when I was 20 and was hit by a man. Is was only a "fender-bender" and no one was hurt. I got out of my car to see if the other driver was okay and he was still talking on his phone and then told the person on the phone that he would call them back later. There are bad drivers everywhere regardless of age, gender, race, etc. But yes, I do see more female drivers driving poorly than men but I see a lot of male road rage too. I think it's 50/50. I have been in two accidents involving another driver. Neither one were my fault or severe but due to someone else not paying attention. I have been driving for 13 years and for the last 8 years I have been driving nearly 100 miles a day! I think that the cost of insurance should only be based on the individual with out gender discrimination. Of course, men pay more, and they shouldn't. My dad is 56 years old and has NEVER been in an accident! Yes, I find your research enlightening! I have been driving since I was 17 and I have seen A LOT of bad drivers. I got into my first accident when I was 20 and was hit by a man. Is was only a “fender-bender” and no one was hurt. I got out of my car to see if the other driver was okay and he was still talking on his phone and then told the person on the phone that he would call them back later. There are bad drivers everywhere regardless of age, gender, race, etc. But yes, I do see more female drivers driving poorly than men but I see a lot of male road rage too. I think it’s 50/50. I have been in two accidents involving another driver. Neither one were my fault or severe but due to someone else not paying attention. I have been driving for 13 years and for the last 8 years I have been driving nearly 100 miles a day!

I think that the cost of insurance should only be based on the individual with out gender discrimination. Of course, men pay more, and they shouldn’t. My dad is 56 years old and has NEVER been in an accident!

]]> Comment on nRRPResponseCode 531 Name Server Error by Steve Scott (Scotty) http://blog.gordaen.com/2008/01/06/nrrpresponsecode-531-name-server-error/#comment-95894 Steve Scott (Scotty) Sat, 03 May 2008 21:47:11 +0000 http://blog.gordaen.com/2008/01/06/nrrpresponsecode-531-name-server-error/#comment-95894 Just done the same thing, thanks for posting possibly saved me hours Just done the same thing, thanks for posting possibly saved me hours

]]> Comment on What It Takes To Become A Teacher by Mary http://blog.gordaen.com/2006/11/29/what-it-takes-to-become-a-teacher/#comment-83531 Mary Wed, 09 Apr 2008 20:39:42 +0000 http://blog.gordaen.com/2006/11/29/what-it-takes-to-become-a-teacher/#comment-83531 Its a great question and topic. Many many people really think to become teachers because they were inspired to make a positive difference in the world. This may have come from a precious experience when they were in school and one or more teachers made a lasting impact on their life, or they have simply been drawn to that profession out of want to make a lasting difference in a child or adults life. Why else would you go through all of that for such a low income level? To further the question here, I don't think its just... What it takes to become a teacher, but rather "what it takes to become an good and effective teacher" is the real question. Lets face it, even after once goes through all of this to become a teacher, they may lose that passion and enthusiasm for many many reasons. Internal school politics, lack of support from the school district and principal, dealing with discipline issues ALL days long rather than being to concentrate on teaching, dealing with difficult parents who just don't get it where their children's lives are concerned, and on and on and on. One of the keys to being better prepared for all possible contingencies involves a good teacher prep degree program that covers best teaching practices and techniques and requires a LOT of in the classroom training. This can be a huge eye opener for many soon to be teacher candidates. Secondly, once a teacher, a supportive administration that provides and even pushes their teachers to regularly attend professional development classes that help them to be more affective in the classroom with both teaching as well as the emotional and personal issues that also are a part of a teachers life. For the busy full time parent looking to fit a rigorous teacher prep degree program into their life and dreams, there are a few different options. However, I often find that online programs with an "in the classroom component" tends to work best. There are many schools out there that are both regionally and NCATE accredited but very few allow you to get this "more complete" training online. There are a few options though. The best I recommend so far are the Teacher Certification programs at Western Governors University http://www.wgu.edu/education/teacher_certification.asp . They offer NCLB compliant programs for teacher in mathematics, science, education, special education, and more. They offer both bachelors and masters programs as well. May be worth a look anyway. As far as the ongoing professional development classes and courses. There are many options and again, for working adults, online often times can work best. FOr this I recommend a few places. iEARN is not bad http://www.iearn.org/professional/online.html as well as http://www.teacheronlineeducation.com/. ANyway, I admire, all who take on such a noble cause and profession. We need more with passion in this area. I appreciate the subject being brought up. I hope this helps some. Its a great question and topic. Many many people really think to become teachers because they were inspired to make a positive difference in the world. This may have come from a precious experience when they were in school and one or more teachers made a lasting impact on their life, or they have simply been drawn to that profession out of want to make a lasting difference in a child or adults life. Why else would you go through all of that for such a low income level?

To further the question here, I don’t think its just… What it takes to become a teacher, but rather “what it takes to become an good and effective teacher” is the real question. Lets face it, even after once goes through all of this to become a teacher, they may lose that passion and enthusiasm for many many reasons. Internal school politics, lack of support from the school district and principal, dealing with discipline issues ALL days long rather than being to concentrate on teaching, dealing with difficult parents who just don’t get it where their children’s lives are concerned, and on and on and on.

One of the keys to being better prepared for all possible contingencies involves a good teacher prep degree program that covers best teaching practices and techniques and requires a LOT of in the classroom training. This can be a huge eye opener for many soon to be teacher candidates. Secondly, once a teacher, a supportive administration that provides and even pushes their teachers to regularly attend professional development classes that help them to be more affective in the classroom with both teaching as well as the emotional and personal issues that also are a part of a teachers life.

For the busy full time parent looking to fit a rigorous teacher prep degree program into their life and dreams, there are a few different options. However, I often find that online programs with an “in the classroom component” tends to work best. There are many schools out there that are both regionally and NCATE accredited but very few allow you to get this “more complete” training online. There are a few options though. The best I recommend so far are the Teacher Certification programs at Western Governors University http://www.wgu.edu/education/teacher_certification.asp . They offer NCLB compliant programs for teacher in mathematics, science, education, special education, and more. They offer both bachelors and masters programs as well. May be worth a look anyway.

As far as the ongoing professional development classes and courses. There are many options and again, for working adults, online often times can work best. FOr this I recommend a few places. iEARN is not bad http://www.iearn.org/professional/online.html as well as http://www.teacheronlineeducation.com/.

ANyway, I admire, all who take on such a noble cause and profession. We need more with passion in this area. I appreciate the subject being brought up. I hope this helps some.

]]> Comment on nRRPResponseCode 531 Name Server Error by Nat Williams http://blog.gordaen.com/2008/01/06/nrrpresponsecode-531-name-server-error/#comment-81990 Nat Williams Tue, 08 Apr 2008 14:25:45 +0000 http://blog.gordaen.com/2008/01/06/nrrpresponsecode-531-name-server-error/#comment-81990 oh god...I wasted a hell of a lot more than 40 minutes with this, I'll tell you that. thanks a lot oh god…I wasted a hell of a lot more than 40 minutes with this, I’ll tell you that.
thanks a lot

]]> Comment on Guido On Django In 2006 by Ian Clifton http://blog.gordaen.com/2008/04/03/guido-on-django-in-2006/#comment-79542 Ian Clifton Sat, 05 Apr 2008 22:15:39 +0000 http://blog.gordaen.com/?p=413#comment-79542 Error reporting should always be configurable. On a live server, you don't want the end user to see any errors they don't have to, and you want to catch the drastic ones to give a more friendly message. On a development server, you want all errors (no matter how small) to show up, so you can code using best practices. A developer shouldn't have to consider the error level when building an app, because it should be built to have no notices and to properly handle any other problems. I like that you can specify your own error handler in PHP, that way you can throw exceptions if you want or log/email error information, etc. Error reporting should always be configurable. On a live server, you don’t want the end user to see any errors they don’t have to, and you want to catch the drastic ones to give a more friendly message. On a development server, you want all errors (no matter how small) to show up, so you can code using best practices.

A developer shouldn’t have to consider the error level when building an app, because it should be built to have no notices and to properly handle any other problems.

I like that you can specify your own error handler in PHP, that way you can throw exceptions if you want or log/email error information, etc.

]]> Comment on Guido On Django In 2006 by Vitaliy http://blog.gordaen.com/2008/04/03/guido-on-django-in-2006/#comment-79535 Vitaliy Sat, 05 Apr 2008 21:38:39 +0000 http://blog.gordaen.com/?p=413#comment-79535 > change the error reporting level in PHP and even log the notices IMO php did very big mistake when they allow to configure error reporting level and their quote system... If error reporting will be configurable - then every developer will need to make some checks and more lines of code if he wants to make his app more portable. There should be only build-in 'on' or 'off' templates error reporting - but not configurable! > change the error reporting level in PHP and even log the notices
IMO php did very big mistake when they allow to configure error reporting level and their quote system…
If error reporting will be configurable - then every developer will need to make some checks and more lines of code if he wants to make his app more portable.
There should be only build-in ‘on’ or ‘off’ templates error reporting - but not configurable!

]]> Comment on Features A Blog Should Have by Ian Clifton http://blog.gordaen.com/2008/03/31/features-a-blog-should-have/#comment-75807 Ian Clifton Wed, 02 Apr 2008 01:22:39 +0000 http://blog.gordaen.com/?p=412#comment-75807 Statistics are definitely a great feature. Being informed about what articles people are coming to helps give the author a better sense of what his/her readers are interested in (or whether readers just pop in from Google and take off again). Themes and templates are actually issues I've been debating with in the blog software that I am writing. Since it's designed specifically to my needs, I don't have any major need to have fancy template/theme switching, but I have been looking at splitting my blog into two: a technical one and an everything-else one. The semantic XHTML will definitely make styling much nicer but I am still debating the best way to handle templates. Open Search is a good thing to bring up that I hadn't thought about. I'll add it to my to-do list. I'm not sure which microformats would be applicable, unless the blog contains event information or perhaps contact info, but I'm definitely in favor of microformats. Interesting feature of WP2.5 that I noticed: If you type something after the ".com/" part of the URI, if will search for that (if applicable). For instance, "internet" forwards to an article on Internet Explorer that I wrote. Image handling in WP2.5 has improved from prior versions, but it still isn't where it should be. Statistics are definitely a great feature. Being informed about what articles people are coming to helps give the author a better sense of what his/her readers are interested in (or whether readers just pop in from Google and take off again).

Themes and templates are actually issues I’ve been debating with in the blog software that I am writing. Since it’s designed specifically to my needs, I don’t have any major need to have fancy template/theme switching, but I have been looking at splitting my blog into two: a technical one and an everything-else one. The semantic XHTML will definitely make styling much nicer but I am still debating the best way to handle templates.

Open Search is a good thing to bring up that I hadn’t thought about. I’ll add it to my to-do list. I’m not sure which microformats would be applicable, unless the blog contains event information or perhaps contact info, but I’m definitely in favor of microformats.

Interesting feature of WP2.5 that I noticed: If you type something after the “.com/” part of the URI, if will search for that (if applicable). For instance, “internet” forwards to an article on Internet Explorer that I wrote.

Image handling in WP2.5 has improved from prior versions, but it still isn’t where it should be.

]]> Comment on Features A Blog Should Have by Josh Schumacher http://blog.gordaen.com/2008/03/31/features-a-blog-should-have/#comment-75707 Josh Schumacher Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:49:06 +0000 http://blog.gordaen.com/?p=412#comment-75707 I think something your blogging software should have built in is some sort of statistics (from the admin side). Another feature you didn't address is themes/templates. You need to be able to drop in a new css file or completely different templates and it should look completely different. Along the same lines, it needss to generate semantic, valid XHTML. I think your comments about communtiy are spot on. Search needs to be really good. It would be nice if if conformed to Open Search. The use of microformats where appropriate would be a nice to have. Images need to be very easy. I hate how wordpress handles images, it may have improved in 2.5 but how it used to be at least, sucks. I think something your blogging software should have built in is some sort of statistics (from the admin side). Another feature you didn’t address is themes/templates. You need to be able to drop in a new css file or completely different templates and it should look completely different. Along the same lines, it needss to generate semantic, valid XHTML.

I think your comments about communtiy are spot on. Search needs to be really good. It would be nice if if conformed to Open Search. The use of microformats where appropriate would be a nice to have.

Images need to be very easy. I hate how wordpress handles images, it may have improved in 2.5 but how it used to be at least, sucks.

]]> Comment on Book Review: The Outsiders by Brianna Leftoer http://blog.gordaen.com/2007/01/16/book-review-the-outsiders/#comment-75660 Brianna Leftoer Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:37:41 +0000 http://blog.gordaen.com/2007/01/16/book-review-the-outsiders/#comment-75660 i love this sad amazing story:] i think johnny, ponyboy and the rest of the gang were awesome and heroic:]] i love this sad amazing story:]

i think johnny, ponyboy and the rest of the gang

were awesome and heroic:]]

]]> Comment on nRRPResponseCode 531 Name Server Error by Bodaniel Jeanes http://blog.gordaen.com/2008/01/06/nrrpresponsecode-531-name-server-error/#comment-73889 Bodaniel Jeanes Tue, 25 Mar 2008 11:47:11 +0000 http://blog.gordaen.com/2008/01/06/nrrpresponsecode-531-name-server-error/#comment-73889 you are a genius ... i wasted about 40 minutes before coming to this post haha! you are a genius … i wasted about 40 minutes before coming to this post haha!

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